Village of Oxford Fire Department Renovations and addition replacement building
How we got here.
For many years, the Oxford fire department has approached the Village Board about the eroding riverbank and current station issues. The Village Board was often receptive to different ideas of how to go about this but had been reluctant due to the economic feasibility of the scope of work.
In 2018, Chief Martin approached the Village Board and presented a list of areas he had concerns with of the existing station and its needs for updating.
His list included the following items:
- Riverbank restoration: Since 2 floods, the first being 2006 and again in 2011, noticeable changes were occurring within the station and on the outside. Some of those changes included major loss of ground on the riverbank side of the station as well as cracks in walls and the foundation of the station, again all on the riverbank side. Floor joint separation doors not working correctly were a clear indication that something had happened and continued to happen.
- Roof Replacement: Replace the 24+ year old roof at the time, which showed delamination and leaks occurring.Removal of the condemned Coe House storage area with a suitable replacement building in its place on the same footprint.
- Electrical upgrades and new generator: The department had been operating on non-reliable, un-stable electrical current. In addition, the set-up had been originally installed as a wild-leg electrical set-up. Noticeable changes had been occurring and unexplained anomalies within the department’s walls were occurring such as blowing TV monitors, computer monitors, and other delicate electrical instruments. A generator that sometimes worked and other times did not that was located inside the station creating noxious exhaust and fumes into all areas of the station. A suitable replacement generator outside of the firehouse was critical in keeping this a building open to the public in times of need.
- Plumbing upgrades: Plumbing upgrades included a bathroom ADA compliant and replacement of old inefficient and some non-operational fixtures.
- HVAC upgrades: This was to include replacement of HVAC that was in efficient and in some cases non-operational HVAC equipment.
- Windows and Doors: Windows and doors are the original doors to the 50+ year old station and are not efficient and in many areas unable to open or have large gaps that feed cold air into the station in the winter or let warm air escape in the winter.
- Front Apron: After 50+ years, the front apron is in need of replacement to make a safe response approach for firefighters and the public.
- Replacement Structure: Build a new replacement structure to store equipment in and an addition of apparatus bays to reduce congestion in the existing fire station structure. When built in early 1975 the OFD was State of the art but nobody could have guessed that with the changes in fire science and the call dynamics faced today that apparatus would get bigger. However, this is exactly the case and is no fault of the membership but is the industry standard. As we get more challenging calls and the equipment need continues to expand so do the sizes of the apparatus. Current situation inside the station shows less than a foot gap in between apparatus, which does not allow for safe path of travel for both equipment and personnel. There is insufficient space between fire apparatus, gear storage, and equipment, creating hazardous conditions for first responders. Per NFPA and OSHA, fire gear needs to be decontaminated and kept in an area that cannot off-gas to other areas within the station. A new replacement building would include gear storage and decontamination equipment built into the space.
In 2019, The Village of Oxford hired Hueber Breuer from Syracuse to do a comprehensive facilities plan and the items listed above were identified as with several others. The facilities plan gave an executive summary, existing Facility Analysis, Riverbank Analysis, Existing Facility Structural Analysis, Options/Budgets, Call Volume Analysis, Now vs. Later and Supporting Documents.
After several months of exhaustive work, the Oxford Fire Department Comprehensive Facilities Plan was released. More than what initially was thought needed was captured in this plan and a path was developed on how to do this economically. Ultimately, seven options were considered. With the help from Hueber Breuer and their report, the 10 recommendations called the “Viable Options” were:
- New building – same site
- New building – new site
- Repair riverbed only
- Repair building only
- Repair riverbed/ repair building
- Repair riverbed/ renovate building
- Repair riverbed/ renovate/ addition
- Sub-Station – EMS only
- Consolidation
- Do nothing
After review, the Department Committee and Village Board met and went through a point exercise with Hueber Breuer off the existing above ten scenarios. Through this exercise, the answer that received the highest numerical rating would lead the direction of where to proceed. Based off call data, location of calls, call dynamics, historical and future date along with membership and project cost, the ultimate choice was number 7 - Repair riverbed/ renovate/ addition.
Option 1 came to an estimated total cost of nearly $6 million, option 2 nearly $6 million not including property cost. Option 3 nearly seven hundred thousand but did not address other critical areas. Option 4 was nearly four hundred thousand but excluded many reason that where we are at in the first place. Option 5 was over $1 million and also did not address many needed items. Option 6, nearly $1.5 million failed to support many rules and codes for firefighter safety and did not deliver what we were intending to do in the first place. Option 7 was the closest to what we were attempting to do that fit all our areas of need and concern, with its cost at $2.8 million. Option 8 came in at a cost of $2.3 million and addressed moving the EMS only and not the full scope of issues. Option 9 was not feasible based on other station locations from 6.6 miles to 13 miles away, which became very apparent as not an option.
Option 10 was not an option as Hueber Breuer presented what would happen if nothing was to be done and it showed with another 20 years of nothing being done that the structure would be compromised to a point of needing replacement.
Then in 2019 Covid hit, and everything was shut down including our project, this was a critical time and one that we would not recover from fully. During this time, interest rates were at historical lows and it made sense to move forward with the project. With closures, meetings canceled and contractors not bidding our project become crippled.
Finally, after the long duration closures, contract work starting back up and the public coming back to life, several other items also came to life such as recession and sky-rocketing interest rates and contractors being flooded with work. All these factors combined, again, crippled our Option 7.
High interest rates, material shortages along with no bidders took a project originally estimated at nearly $400 a square foot now was raised to nearly $1000 a square foot knocking the $2.8 Million dollar Option 7 project out of reality.
In addition to the project, we were also in dire need of a replacement engine as our first line engine was now in rapid operational decline. The decision was made to purchase a new frontline engine to protect the taxpayers as well as guests and visitors of our fire district. The cost of a new engine at $750,000 also added to the projects delay.
Today.
After several open and advertised community participation public forums were held at the fire station, it was decided to go to public referendum for Option 7 at a cost of $2.8 million on September 28th from noon to 9 pm with the final vote of a 2 to 1 in favor of proceeding.
Several rounds of bids were sent out for the project where all came back way over the $2.8 million dollar project. Numerous grants have been pursued to help offset the cost of the project. As of today, we have been awarded one hundred thousand dollars for an Exhaust Capture and Removal System which was from a FEMA award and this project has been completed. This last November we were the recipient of the V-Fire award of $1 million dollars which will be used for various portions of the project not already either being worked on or completed.
As you travel through Oxford, you will notice that as of January 2025 the Riverbank Revetment project is complete. In addition, the Exhaust Capture and Removal System is complete, the new generator is installed and many of the electrical updates have been completed and we also have a new roof on the station which should take us out another 25-30 years. All these projects have been completed through an ala cart approach rather than one huge project. It was decided to proceed in this direction and get the most critical needs addressed until additional funding is received or prices and interest rates come down.
Please view our photos section of old and new and the current progress to date with our Station project.